golden grahams

i've never really eaten those before. i am now. they are good.
so! now i am officially home for the summer.

i feel a little as though pondering and expounding posts won't come as easily this summer. maybe because at home the computer is in the kitchen/dining room. i'm not sure that's conducive to pondering. it's most certainly conducive to talking, my mom knows that firsthand!

freedom doesn't exist. that's what my YWAM director always told us. it started heated debates, even detailed diagrams! the bible tells us we have freedom in Christ. that we have the mind of Christ. but is it really freedom when we aren't allowed to do certain things? obviously, sinning is something we are trying to eradicate in our lives, so are we really free if we "can't" sin? if i'm to "put to death therefore, [various sins]" as paul tells the church in colosse, then i'm not really free. am i? what do you think? my belief is that the problem with understanding our freedom in Christ is that we're still defining freedom by the world's terms. the Spirit's definition is what matters. in so many things we look to the world's definition and get mixed up. even prosperity...we know God has promised to bless us, to give good things to us, but it becomes twisted when we look only at the world's definition of prosperity. God's prosperity on you may very well include the world's definition, but that is not guaranteed or the most important or most significant. so with freedom. our world tells us that freedom is to be able to do whatever we want, whenever we want and to tolerate others' behaviour. freedom in Christ? release from the bondage of sin. release from that dictating our lives and our eternity. we may still sin, but in the freedom given us, we have been "qualified to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light". qualified, in the greek, means we have been equipped with everything necessary to perform our duties! so we may still sin, but the beauty and the freedom comes as we realize we have authority in Christ, we have been redeemed (already happened), and we are equipped through the Spirit to put to death sin in our lives! i'm not sure if all this makes sense to you, sometimes i just need to pour out my guts. (thanks to chris keim for the inspiration and challenges!)